Casualties: Casualties include both the number of people killed and injured. Casualties among civilians, militants and security forces are treated as another indicator to measure the levels and trends of security in the country.

Military Operation: Large-scale operations launched by military and paramilitary forces against Islamist militants and separatist insurgents in Malakand Division, FATA and Balochistan to preserve law and order and the writ of the state.

Operational Attack: Pre-emptive attacks launched by military and paramilitary troops to purge an area of militants.

Overall Number of Attacks: The sum of militant and counter-militant attacks by the security forces, besides drone attacks, incidents of ethno-political violence, and attacks with sectarian motives or by nationalist insurgents.

Search and Hunt Operation: Launched by law enforcement agencies on intelligence to capture militants or to purge a particular locality of suspected militants and their hideouts.

Sectarian Clashes: Violent clashes between armed factions of banned sectarian outfits or between followers of rival sects such as Sunni-Shia, Deobandi-Barelvi strife. Sectarian clashes also include tribal feuds between followers of Sunni and Shia schools of thought as in Kurram Agency, where the Sunni Turi tribesmen frequently clash with members of the Shia Bangash tribe.

Terrorist Attacks include incidents of indiscriminate use of violence by militants, nationalist insurgents and sectarian groups.

Terrorist Attacks by Militants: Indiscriminate use of violence by militant outfits such as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Islam etc., manifested through suicide attacks, beheadings and destruction of educational institutions, CD/video shops, etc.Terrorist Attacks by Nationalist Insurgents: Attacks by separatists/nationalist insurgents mainly in Balochistan.

Terrorist Attacks by Sectarian Groups, or Sectarian-related Terrorist Attacks: Indiscriminate use of violence rooted in differences among various Islamic schools of thought over interpretation of religious commands. Incidents involving indiscriminate use of violence perpetrated by banned sectarian outfits such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Tehrik-e-Jafria, Imamia Student Organization (ISO), Sipah-e-Muhammad, etc., against rival schools of religious thought.

Pak Institute for Peace Studies Pvt Ltd. (PIPS) is a research and advocacy think-tank. An initiative of leading Pakistani scholars, researchers and journalists, PIPS conducts wide-ranging research and analysis of political, social and religious conflicts that have a direct bearing on both national and international...